Cabrini College left picking up the pieces after NCAA Division III tournament loss

Radnor — It was not supposed to end like this. Not when you have national championship aspirations. Certainly not when the first two rounds of the Division III NCAA tournament are on your home floor where victories had become so routine that the hardwood seemed almost literally tilted in favor of the hosts.

Alas, as Cabrini coach Marcus Kahn said, “that’s life.”

In this case “life” was a second-round defeat at the hands of Stockton College at Nerney Field House on Saturday night. The 85-76 defeat came 24 hours after the fourth-ranked Cavaliers (26-2) toyed with Bridgewater State in a 100-69 embarrassment.

It truly was a tale of two nights for Cabrini. In the opening-round rout Aaron Walton-Moss, Vinny Walls and Fran Rafferty combined to hit on 27-of-39 (69.2 percent) shots from the floor, including 9-of-14 (64.2) from beyond the arc. They totaled 73 points, though neither played as much as 28 minutes. It came that easily.

Advertisement

Not so versus 22nd-ranked Stockton. Against the Ospreys (25-4) from Galloway Township, NJ, the Cavaliers shot 53.6 percent from the field overall in the opening half, but made just 2-of-15 three-pointers over the final 20 minutes and were 9-of-33 (27.3) for the game. Still, that may not have mattered if Stockton did not gobble up eight offensive rebounds in the first half, leading to several easy points and Cabrini’s second home-court defeat in its last 72 games.

The “what ifs” are just that, though. What is known is that Cabrini’s seniors, including King of Prussia’s Rafferty, can hold their heads aloft despite the pain of defeat. After all, they won four Colonial States Athletic Conference championships – the program has won five in a row — went to the NCAA’s each year, including a journey to the championship game in 2012 and an Elite Eight appearance last spring.

“There are very few teams, including those that have knocked us out of the tournament the last few years, that can say that they have had the runs that out seniors have had,” said Kahn, who has been named the CSAC coach of the year in each of his six seasons with Cabrini. “For our senior class, this is the shortest (NCAA) run they have been on and that’s what stings. Losing is disappointing, but it takes nothing away from the program we have.”

Nobody needed to ask Rafferty, a product of Upper Merion Area High School, how disappointed the early exit was. That disappointment was visible as his emotions overflowed while walking off the home court with his teammates for the last time. About 15 minutes later, while doing his best to contain those emotions, he addressed the media with the class and dignity that punctuated his career on the Radnor campus.

“My teammates, first and foremost,” said Rafferty, when asked what he will see when he takes the time to reflect on his career. “I have been closer to this group of guys than any team I have been on. The coaching staff did a great job helping me expand my game the past four years. The runs we have been on were really remarkable and you can’t take anything away from that. This program has taken me places I thought I would never go and I will never forget one minute on the floor at Cabrini. I will feel a lot of pride looking back on it.”

As well he should. With Walton-Moss and Walls averaging 43 points between them this season, Rafferty was able to concentrate more on being a general on and off the court. He still averaged 14.3 points and 4.3 rebounds while earning first-team CSAC honors.

“It’s a tough way to go out and this was not what I was expecting in the postseason this year,” said Rafferty, who scored more than 1,400 career points. “But I could not picture (my career at Cabrini) being any more worthwhile than it was.”

While the seniors move on, Kahn can look forward to the continued development of five freshmen who got their feet wet this season.

“We now have five freshmen that played in the NCAA tournament and that won an NCAA tournament game,” he said. “They now understand that next year as we go forward they will have a better grasp of what we are trying to accomplish thanks to this experience.”

One of those players is Collegeville’s Brent Mahoney. The 6-foot-5 forward out of Pope John Paul II was no stranger to Cabrini fans. He averaged 15 minutes per game, chipped in 3.3 points and 3.2 rebounds per contest after a separated shoulder and concussion sidelined him for the early portion of the season.

“This whole season was a great experience and this tournament meant a lot to me,” he said. “Losing in the second round stings, but it was a great experience all around.”

Rafferty’s presence is a large reason why Mahoney feels prepared for what lies ahead.

“He was a big reason why I came here,” said Mahoney. “He is an all-around great leader and a great guy on and off the court who has always done the right things. He loves Cabrini and he loves basketball and I am sure he will help out around here in the future.”

The future for Kahn and the program will arrive soon enough. After all, the seasons seem to come and go faster with each passing year and for Cabrini it is imperative not to allow defeat to fester longer than it needs to.

“Losing to Stockton in the second round of the NCAA tournament does not define what we have done with this program the last six years,” said Kahn, who is 153-27 with the Cavs. “What will define us is how we come back from this and what we do about it as a program. We have five guys that are going to graduate and the rest of our guys are coming back and I am excited about that.”